"One, two, three, heave!" men shout as they strain against a wooden motor boat used to catch green mussels just a few hours before.

Heading out at dawn from the beach in Kalibaru subdistrict, Cilincing district, North Jakarta, the fishermen return just after 11 a.m., bringing with them the day's catch of slimy, mud-choked mussels. "It's getting more difficult these days, fishermen have to travel farther to catch mussels," neighborhood association head Bowo Lesmana said.

Most of the neighborhood's 97 families are dependent on the bounty of Jakarta Bay, but pollution from nearby factories and garbage collecting on the beach has killed off local mussel farms and pushed back mussel-rich areas.

Off the boats, the green mussels are carried in sacks and dumped on concrete floors where women quickly pluck them off the mud and clean them in water.

With the mounds of mussels to clean off, the women divide their attention between their work and their babies, who are left inside makeshift batik cloth swings overhead.

Small mussels are separated from the larger ones, and all are boiled inside metal drums over a fire, before being sold in auctions at the market.

"The men get at least Rp 16,000 each on slow days. Which is often these days," Bowo said, explaining that on rainy days and during gales, the fishermen stayed home to mend their nets.

Many young men of the community eventually follow in the footsteps of their parents, but with diminishing ocean resources many more are looking for work elsewhere.

However, with unemployment as high as 30 percent, and the people's level of education seldom higher than elementary level, the future of the community's youth looks bleak.